Tile handling machine



Sgpt. l, 1931. J. A. BO WER- TILE- I IANDLING MACHINE Filed April 15, 1929 3 Sheets-Shee ATTORNEY p 1931- J. A. BOWER 1,821,001

TILE HANDLING MACHINE Filed April 13. 1 2 3 Sheets-Shee 2 ,5 5. 77 3g 76 5/?" 75 xii w c 1 I Z g 11 4a 4a m u K o H gfi 4 E 6i? =3 41 4a 0 4 59 40 /"3/ N E9 5 v 6/ INVENTOR Q 9 Ja es ower' I BY 47 ATTORNEY s t. 1, 1931. A BOWER 1,821,001

TILE HANDLING MACHINE Filed April 13. 1 2 3 Sheets-Shee 3 INVENTOR Mes/1 Bower BY W ATTO RN EY Patented Sept. 1, 1 931 UNITED-I T S PATENT OFFICE JAMES A. Bownaon ANDEnsoN, INDIANA, AssIeNon T NATIONAL TILE COMPANY,

oF1A nERsoN,';I I IANA, A CORPORATION OF OHIO TILE HAND I G MACHINE Application filed April 13,

My invention relates to a machine for handling tiles of any of the various stages of the processes of manufacture or finishing,

. and particularly for stacking tiles in a prey determined manner as they are received green from the press, and ity is an object of the in- 'vention to provide a machine which-will so handle and stack the tiles that they may be moved in multiples by an operator without injury thereto and with great facility and likewise in a manner to permit them to be inspected during the stacking operation, all as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed." Broadly stated, my invention comprises a beltconfveyor for receiving green tiles from "a press, notv shown, from which conveyor the tiles are placed in stacked relation upon a tablewith means for lowering the table sucago cessivelyina step by step manner as each tileris deposited thereon. -A reciprocating carriage is provided for pushing the tiles one at a time'ofi the conveyor onto the table, and another reciprocating carriage is provided for pushing the stacked tiles off the table onto a receivingboard .which is adapted to be placed by an attendant in a kiln for firing. Referring to, the accompanying drawings, which are made a part hereof and on which go 'similar reference characters indicate similar parts, i p v I p Figure 1 is a side elevation, illustrating one applicationof my'invention,

Figure 2, a.front end elevation, I Figure 3, atop planview,

taken on line ll of Figure ,1,

Figure 5, a fragmentary detail, Figure 6, a fragmentary detail taken on e0 the line 66 of Figure 2, and p Figure 7 a fragmentarydetail perspective of abracket and portionof a pusher plate.

In the drawings reference character 10 indicates upright frame members connected by .45 lower horizontal side bars 11, intermediate horizontal sidebars12, and cross bars 13 and 14. A conveyer belt 15 extends around a pulley 16mounted upon a transverse shaft 17, and'upon the opposite end of the conveyor green tile. 18 are deposited from'a press,

Figure 4, a fragmentary detail section 1929. Serial No. 354,904.

not shown. The upper run of the conveyor belt is supported on its under side by a plate '19, so that the tile may travel in a horizontal reception of the upper end of the rod 21, a set screw 25 being utilized for securing the hub on the rod. The table is provided with an upper facing 26 of tile, in order-that the tile may be uniformly handled. The first and second'tile otherwise would be deposited on dissimilar surfaces, but the facing 26 forms a surface for the first tile similarto that upon which the second tile will be deposited;

' Between the upper run of the conveyor and the table upon which the tile are adapted to 'be deposited from the conveyor is fixed a filler plate 27, which spans the gap between the belt and the table.- Thus, as the tile are s advanced on the conveyor they will be deposited onto the table 20, and I provide means hereinafter'described, for lowering the table corresponding to the thickness of the tile, so

that as the tile are deposited on the table one by one the'table will lower in a step by step manner to receive each tile.

Power for operating the machine is supplied by a sprocket chain 28 and sprocket 29 on a transverse shaft 30 and another sprocket 31 on said shaft drives a sprocket chain 32 which engages a sprocket 33 fixed to a shaft 34 beneath the conveyor belt 15. On the shaft 34 there is another sprocket 33, which through the instrumentality of a chain 35 and a sprocket ,36 on the pulley shaft 16 drives the conveyor. A pinion 37 fixed on the shaft 30 drives a relatively large gear 38 (6 to 1 ratio) on a shaft 39 supported in bearings 40 on the frame.

end of the polygonal table carrying rod 21.

The cam wheel 41 has stepped peripheral surfaces 42 to 47 inclusive cut on uniformly varying radii'to permit the rod 21 and table supported thereby 'to'lower in step by step manner as the roller on the lower end ofthe rod engages the respective surfaces on the cam wheel. The differences in radii of the various peripheral surfaces is equivalent to the thickness of a single tile, so that the table will move downward just enough to accommodate the next tile to be placed upon the stack until the table is completely filled and the roller 23 rests on the peripheral surface 47 having thexshortest radii or nearest the center'of the cam wheel. When in this position the tile are transferred from the table onto the receiving board 48,'from which they are adapted to be removed by an attendant and put in a container for treatment in the kiln. w s

In'order to transfer the tile-one at a time from the conveyor onto the table,l provide a reciprocating carriage 49 provided with located in U-shaped channel members 51 and 52. At the front end of the carriage 49 is a cross'rod 53 on which ispivoted'apusher plate 54. The pusher plate 54 has alug 55 on its rear side, by means of which the plate is normally held in a depending substantially vertical position at right angles to the, conveyor belt in a position to engage atile. A spring "56 normally maintains the plate in the depending condition described but will 'yield to permit the plate. to swing upward on striking the adjustablestop screw'7O and permit thenext tileto be stacked to pass under the plate without injury. The front side of the pusher plate is faced with soft rubber'57 so that the tile will not be injured as the'pusher makes contact with-'the'tile.

The carriage 49 is reciprocated by a rocker arm' 58 pivoted at 59' on the frame bar 12,

said rocker arm having a roller 60 at itslower end which is engaged by a cam 61 on the shaft 30 so that at each revolution of the shaft the rockerarm will be reciprocated to move the carriage forwardly andto return the'same to itsretracted position. The rocker arin' 58 V is provided at its upper end with a pair of yoke forming arms'62 and 63 each ofwhich is provided with opposed spaced plates 64 between which are disposed sliding blocks 65 which form journals for a shaft'fidsupported by spaced uprights '67 on the carriage 49. A spr ng .68 is anchored to a bracket 69 on the frame and to the rocker arm and serves to return the carriage to its retracted position,

as shown in Fig. 1. The tile is'pushed off 7 "the conveyor beltat' such a speed that the carriage will be returned to its original clear position (Fig. 1) before the subsequent tile .rails or channels 51 and 52in which the carriage rollers are mounted, V

I have described means for conveying the tileand for transferring it from the conveyorto the table which lowers as each tile onto the mounting board. This device comprises a'carriage 72 having rollers 73-at its oppositesldes disposed 1n channel members which form a track for the carriage. A pair of depending arms orbrackets 74 support a removablepush'er plate 75' having a soft facing 76 of rubber or the like adapted to contactwiththe stack of tile on the table. The lower ends of the depending arms are bent up to receive the pusher plate which is adapted to be elevated by'the upward movei 'ment of the table if the carriage has not spaced rollers 50 at each side of the-same is'received, and will next describe the mechanism for pushing thestacked tile off the table reached its retracted position. The raising of the pusher plate will prevent any damage being done to the machine. The carriage 72 is operated by means of a rocker arm 77 hav-- ing a roller 78 onits lower end, which is en- "gagedby a lobe 7 9 of a cam 80 01 1 the cam forms a journal for a shaft 84 held upon uprights 85 on the carriage72. V

The machine 1s t med 'to operate in conjunctlon with a Walltil press so that as each tile is carried along the conveyor it will be'pushed off the-same ont'o the' depressible table at such a speed that the carriage will make the forward and backward movement in time to reach the clear position shown in Fig.1 only that the pusher will berout of the way to permit the tile to pass beneath the same to a positionto be push'ed'off' the conveyor. At the same time for each movement of the carriage the cam wheel turns a. sufficient distanceto lower the table thethiclness of one tile until the stack of tile is complete;whereupon the ,lobe 79 engages the roller 78 and operates'the rockerarm 77 and carriage 72 to push thestackof tile onto the mounting board. This cycle of operation is repeated during the operation of the ma chine. y Y

' n will be obvious tothose'skilled in the art that various changes may be made in my device without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I, therefore do not-limit' myself-to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as set forth in the appended claim Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure a charging meansfor discharging articles from the table, a pair of associated shafts, a connection. between the shafts for causing one to make several revolutions toeach revolution of theother shaft, a connection between the rapidly revolving shaft and the primary discharge means, a connection between the slowly revolving shaft and the secondary discharge means, and a cam on the slowly rotating shaft having its periphery engaging a connection to thetable said periphery being out along stepped radii to cause a gradual lowering of the table the arrangement being such that a plurality of articles will be discharged from the conveyor onto the table and the table lowered to cause the articles to be disposed in stack formation and the stack discharged from the table by the secondary conveyor, substantially asset forth.

2. Ina tile handling machine the combination of a conveyor, a table for receivingtile from the conveyor, means for transferring the tile from the conveyor to the table, a continuously revolving variable cam having its aeripher' cut into apluralit of tracks each track being closer to the center ofthe cam than the one next preceding it to provide step-down surfaces, the table having a depending post having its lower end resting upon the said cam for lowering the table in step-by-step manner as the tile are deposited thereon, substantially as set forth.

8. In a tile handling machine the combination of a conveyor, a table for receiving tile from the conveyor, means for transferring the tile from the conveyor to the table, a continuously revolving variable cam having its periphery cut into a plurality of tracks, each track being closer to the center of the cam than the one next preceding it to provide step-down surfaces, the table having a deendin ost havin its lower end restin P b ca upon the same cam'for lowering the table in step-by-step manner as the tile are deposited thereon, and means for discharging the tile from thetable, substantially as set fortln Y i. A machine for handling articles for arranging them in stacked formation comprising a conveyor, a table for receiving the articles from the conveyor, means for discharging the articles one by one from the conveyor to the table, a continuously revolving cam. having its peripheral surfaces cut to provide cams each of which lies in an arc of a circle smaller than the one next preceding it, a post secured to the lower portion of the table having its lower end in engagement with the periphery of the cam for lowering the table an amount corresponding to the thickness of each article so that the receiving surface of each article discharged from the conveyor will be substantially in the plane of' the conveyor until a predetermined number of articles are arranged in a stack, means for dischar ing the stack of articles as a unit and a rapid return surface on said cam for causing the table to rise quickly to a position at which it may receive another stack of articles, substantially as set forth.

5. The combination of a continuously moving belt carriage for receiving green tile from a tile press, a table for receiving the tile, a cylindrical cam having its peripheral surface formed of a plurality of cylindrical surfaces each of which lies nearer the center of the cam than the one next preceding it, a post secured beneath said table and having its lower end resting upon the said cam for lowering the table in a stcp-by-step manner as the cam is rotated to cause the tile to be deposited in a superimposed relation to form a stack, a carriage having means engageable thereon with the tile for pushing' them one nine.

JAMES A. BO'WER. 

